Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 22, 2025

Locomotor Assessment of 6-Hydroxydopamine-induced Adult Zebrafish-based Parkinson's Disease Model
Published on: December 28, 2021
Multiview behavior and neurotransmitter analysis of zebrafish dyskinesia induced by 6PPD and its metabolites
Jiawen Ji1, Jinze Huang2, Niannian Cao1
1College of Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
Abstract:
The typical tire manufacturing additive 6PPD, its metabolites 6PPDQ and 4-Hydroxy should be monitored because of their ubiquitous presence in the environment and the high toxicity of 6PPDQ to coho salmon. The toxic effect of 6PPD and its metabolites have been revealed superficially, especially on behavioral characteristics. However, the behavioral indicators explored so far are relatively simple and the toxic causes are poorly understood. With this in mind, our work investigated the toxic effects of 6PPD, 6PPDQ and 4-Hydroxy on adult zebrafish penetratingly through machine vision, and the meandering, body angle, top time and 3D trajectory are used for the first time to show the abnormal behaviors induced by 6PPD and its metabolites. Moreover, neurotransmitter changes in the zebrafish brain were measured to explore the causes of abnormal behavior. The results showed that high-dose treatment of 6PPD reduced the velocity by 42.4% and decreased the time at the top of the tank by 91.0%, suggesting significant activity inhibition and anxiety. In addition, γ-aminobutyric acid and acetylcholine were significantly impacted by 6PPD, while dopamine exhibited a slight variation, which can explain the bradykinesia, unbalance and anxiety of zebrafish and presented similar symptoms as Huntingdon's disease. Our study explored new abnormal behaviors of zebrafish induced by 6PPD and its metabolites in detail, and the toxic causes were revealed for the first time by studying the changes of neurotransmitters, thus providing an important reference for further studies of the biological toxicity of 6PPD and its metabolites.

